Your Business Website: Will Clients Like What They Find?

The purpose of a business website is to promote a company in some fashion. Whether a company is selling products or providing services, the site needs to incorporate all of the technical aspects that make it both web-visitor and search-engine friendly. The ability to do this is no small feat. That’s why serious businesses utilize professional web builder and SEO services to ensure that they can receive the best possible results.
Customer Friendly Website Design
Everyone has heard, time and again, that the customer is always right. The way that this is applied to web design is that when people arrive at the site, they need to feel welcomed. If not, just like in a brick and mortar store, they will leave. Added to the challenge is that web visitors are impatient – they simply are not going to stick around if there is nothing worth looking at on the site. Because there is so little time to engage them, every second counts when visitors arrive at a website.

What are Customers Expecting?

First, what are they not expecting? There is nothing more annoying to a web visitor than a poorly designed website. An ugly or outdated site is not fun and it wastes time. Therefore, your website simply must be designed properly – and that is best done by an expert web builder. Secondly, the site must be user friendly. The layout should be clean and simple, with links that make sense and work properly.

Who’s Looking Anyway?

There are generally three types of people who could arrive at a website for any given reason:

1) Random strangers – People who know nothing about the business have landed on the page due to a related search. Theoretically, they could still be converted to customers or refer the site to others they believe would find it useful. Therefore, the site should contain something of value to the average person, if possible, such as current and relevant articles that solve a problem.

2) Friends of Yours – They like your cause or business. These are people who probably know your URL and may visit on a regular basis. To keep these people engaged, there should always be fresh content to lure them in. One great way to accomplish this is by encouraging people to visit the site through a newsletter or membership.

3) Fans – These are more avid web visitors who regularly come to the site for — you guessed it – the same thing that friends come there for and more. These are often consumers who make regular purchases, so it is very important to ensure that they stay loyal.

Do You Have Fresh Content?

The one thing that all three of these types of web visitors have in common is that they want great, fresh content to be inspired for repeat visits. One added bonus about fresh content is that it also makes the website more search engine friendly. So it’s a win-win for everyone! Customers get something of value, the site stays at the top of the search engines and you have far more potential to:
-Keep customers engaged
-Engage new prospects
-Attract new customers
-Make more sales

Because websites are on the Internet and available for most everyone to see, it is important for serious business owners to ensure that their sites present the most accurate and relevant picture of their offerings possible. When a site is is visually appealing and constructed well by a professional SEO company, such as www.eversparkinteractive.com, it is more likely to attract, and keep, all kinds of visitors.

Since there is only one chance to make a first impression – a site really must make those clicks count! Professional web design is the only way that businesses can ensure that their sites will include both technical and marketing best practice techniques. This is absolutely critical in order to consistently gain and keep a loyal following and attract target markets.

As a writer in the arts and business fields, Ann Bailey sees the beneficial effects of good web design daily. The professional web and SEO builders at www.eversparkinteractive.com put every client’s web design on the cutting edge of internet business presence.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasingdaisy/5843303770/

 

 

3 Reasons Your Domain Name Does not Matter as Much as You Think

domain name tipsWhen the dotcom boom first started, well, booming in the late nineties and early two-thousands, businesses suddenly realized they needed to get online, and fast. There was a mad dash to buy as many relevant domain names as possible in a gold-rush-style form of cyber real estate development. Today, many of those domains have been turned into some of the most popular and influential websites in the world, while others were turned into obscure websites that have remained obscure or have slowly become error pages in a failed Google search link.

What many neglected to realize then was that a simple domain name can’t get you anywhere; you have to have something to back it up. And, to the lament of those early developers, with the advent of search and social media, domain names are now even less important. Don’t ever question the effectiveness of a simply, catchy domain name that perfectly matches the site it represents. That is the sort of domain everyone should be going after. But, what’s truly important these days is not the domain name, it’s what you do with it.

1. Google Finds Content, not Domains

In most instances today, if you’re business isn’t online, it doesn’t exist. The same could be said for low Google rankings. If your products don‘t pop up on the first few search pages, they may as well be non-existent in terms of Google search. In order to get users to see your business page, you have to optimize your pages so Google can detect the type of content that users will be wanting to find when they go to your site. You could have a domain name that is a perfect match for your business name, but if you don’t know how to market your products online, a fancy sounding name is about as far as your domain will get you.

2. Most Links are Hidden

Another way to get users to stumble upon your site is to promote it via social media and online articles, while providing links back to your own site. Usually links are either represented as HTML code hidden underneath representing word, or they are shortened to fit on applications like Twitter and Facebook. Your link will rarely be displayed as showing the entire domain name, no matter how great it is, or how relevant it is to your business. So don’t think that posting a link to your site will make users want to click on it because of the domain name, alone, if they can even see the domain name at all.

3. Social Media Stands on Your Business Name

Social media is the next frontier in internet marketing, as the latest Google Panda updates seem to indicate, it could to be heading toward becoming the next frontier in Google search ranking, as well. Your business (as represented by your website, Twitter account, Facebook page, etc.) is what users will be interacting with, commenting about, and trying to find online through social media. Your domain name needs to be simple and memorable, but the real footing your business needs to prosper online will be in its name and reputation. Make sure your business name is what you lead with, and what you stand on when it comes to social media. Users will be looking to interact with your business, not your domain.

About the Author: This is a guest post by Eliza Morgan who is a full time blogger. She specializes in writing about business credit cards. You can reach her at: elizamorgan856 at gmail dot com.